Alright, dumped quite a few hours in the game so far and have the following thoughts. These will come mostly as criticism but the fact i've played long enough to have these thoughts should clue you in on me enjoying this game mostly.
1) The quests are too convoluted, 80% because the quest chains all take multiple long breaks and you have to wait to complete other quests to continue it. 20% is the sheer quantity of quests. Seriously, it would be completely fine if you could actually just finish off a quest, but the fact you have to pause most of the quests to complete the pre requisite quests is insanely confusing. You forget what the original quest is even about and the sheer quantity to stories continuing simultaneously because you aren't allowed to complete any of them is overwhelming and makes the game convoluted.
2) The "game" portion of this game feels like lost opportunity. This is a good porn game but it could be a good game in general aswell. Right now you're an idiot if you don't spec into cane/cannon and magician. I see all of the shiny equipment on the library and there's no reason to try to get any of them. I keep bonking with my cane as a fuckin thief (didn't know cane/cannon were the only viable options in progression back then). Also idk why you can't respec? or least don't give us absolutely useless class options at all. Can only imagine how much of an unfun time someone who doesn't want to use canes or cannons will have.
3) As a corruption fan, almost all of the corruption being hocus pocus here's some dark magic and now you're my slave is just disappointing lol. Also don't care for how the Hero just becomes insanely evil. I liked both of the sugar baby and Rain corruption quests because there's no dark magic and the MC isn't an evil petty asshole rapist in them lol.
Always like criticism when it isn't "this game is bad, kill yourself" which I've actually gotten lmao.
1. The game is a bit of slice of life so it's almost unfolding day to day, month to month, season to season. While I do agree I wish I could have the time unfold differently, the story is usually what holds it down. By the time we get to the sequel Seasons, I really do plan on organizing content differently. More of a shotgun burst of content per character and then 1 story event instead of the current spray of content, another spray of story, etc, etc.
2. You can actually respec in Sid's Shop. If you have the Recruting System activated, he even gives you a free Respec Item just in case. While I do think this was a lesson learned, later Seasons will actually also address this. More freedom in your Classes and equipment while also allowing you to freely change Jobs and such. but since the game was a WIP for so long, we had to hold back a lot especially in the forms of Guilds because Perion wasn't added until like 2 years ago and that's when we made a lot of choices in how the game functions
3. This is addressed as Corruption goes on. Jane for example is this but the moment she leans into her honesty, the Dark Hero begins to back off in his approach. I think it's a neat style of writing and it's almost often frontloaded or backloaded. But girls that latch into it, you can tell the Hero adores them. Orihime especially but every girl is written differently. Just wait until you unlock Sophia and Ayan Corruption lol
But yeah, the overall theme of WHY The Dark Hero exists is explained as the story goes on. It's not that he's instantly evil, it's that the mirror that reflected him has always been there but just now was able to shine both lights off and on. Hopefully you lean into the game more to see why I chose to do that and the grand reveal as to why The Dark Hero does what he does.
But yeah, 1 and 2 are things we want to fix instantly once we begin later Chapters/Seasons. 3 makes send in the grand scheme but in future seasons, I'll maybe lean more into a Dark Hero that has his prize but can now simply enjoy it instead of being a petty evil asshole